Balancing My Home Gym Routine

[No Crust Racing]

At the moment I use approx 60 second break for bench, curls (more for elbow than anything), squats, dead lifts, and 30secs for dips, BB rows, and ab work so that sounds fine enough for now.

Also I can imagine longer squat/DL breaks needed if I actually had any weight on the bar

[NickR33]

regarding squatting without a rack... instead of back squatting, clean the weight to your chest, roll your shoulders forward to make a shelf to sit the bar on and front squat... lots of youtube vids to explain this

A really good exercise for home is a powerclean to front squat to push press combo... the vid shows it with a back squat as well but you can just do the first 3 (I don't like trying to lift it over my head to put it on my back)

The idea is to be using a heavy enough weight that the clean and squat are difficult... the weight will be too high to do a regular press so you need to bring the legs into it and drive the bar off your shoulders to get it above your head (push press)

his technique isn't the best but you get the idea

[NickR33]

my left elbow is pretty jacked and curls are the worst for it... so I hardly do them but my biceps still grow from doing chins, rows etc... something to think about if your elbows are giving you problems

[No Crust Racing]

God that music is shit =\

Regarding that front squat portion, I find that very hard on my elbow, it might be that I'm using an ezy bar but it kills my elbow, I also can't should press the same weight I squat with, perhaps my shoulders are woefully underpowered, my technique is very wrong, or using the ezy bar plus my elbow is the issue not sure.

I find that when I attempt a should press, using the ezy bar, I have to take a much wider grip than any clip I've seen, having my hands that close together absolutely kills my bad elbow.

[No Crust Racing]

Yeah I'd like to do some chins if I had something around to do them on, our pergola is about about 3-4ft above my outstretched hands and is 100mm steel so getting up there and holding on isn't easy. I only have small girly IT hands.

I can handle ezy bar curls for now, but barbell curls used to kill it, it's the rotation of the wrist/forearm that pulls which is why the shoulder press with close grip murders me.

[NickR33]

ah yes front squats can be really hard on your wrists/elbows... you need a straight bar and some straps like below... allows you to not have to bend your wrists and elbows as much... and still probably easier than back squatting with no rack

yeah a push press is very different from a regular shoulder press... you bend your knees and then stand up very quickly using the momentum to get the bar above your head (see below)

you really need a straight bar... I don't like the EZ bars

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNtoPUXX7bM

[No Crust Racing]

I'll have a look at home, I have a straight bar but it's my bench bar so I don't really want to be pulling plates of it every time.

Could look around for a cheapo second one, will see what I think of the exercise after watching those clips before I decide if my elbow can deal with it.

[NickR33]

weird that your elbow is okay for heavy benching but not for overhead pressing... the grips for both should be similar and the elbow goes through a pretty similar action

I would lay off the curling for a while, nothing flares my elbow up like curling with a barbell... or even an EZ curl bar

swapping plates does give you time to recover between sets but agree, it can get annoying

just making some suggestions as an alternative to doing work lol... feel free to ignore me

[No Crust Racing]

All feedback appreciated when you're a goomba like me

[KezR33]

Zercher squats!

[No Crust Racing]

Kez: No effing way 0_0

Nick: Those two look interesting, might be time to get into a gym at some stage and try out a rack.

Edited January 25, 2012 by ActionDan

[sydking]

Have only just started considered getting a rack Kez so I'll see what options are around for the space I have.

As for your advice, you're just as entitled as anyone else to give an opinion mate You've been working hard in an environment with people who can guide you so you're bound to have some opinions and they are always welcome. That's all I'm after really, a broad range of views on what I should adjust to balance out the routine, I already had a feeling I knew what it might entail and so far it looks like I'm right.

Had a quick look at that routine - what do others think of that? I'll paste it for comment.

Squat 3 x 10

Bench press 3 x 8

Bent row 3 x 8

Military press 3 x 8

SLDL 3 x 8

BB curl 3 x 8

I''m comfortable saying that I've trained for long enough and have good enough muscle memory that I should be able to adapt to that program pretty easily if I wanted to, plus I'm already doing some of it. As for the numbers he quotes (bench 100kg, squat 140kg and deadlift 180kg) I wouldn't be aiming that high as I've seen myself benching 100kgs and my chest is a lot bigger than I or the missus want anymore, that said, I also know that without eating accordingly won't get huge again so it's easy enough to control.

What are others thoughts on dropping reps as I'm currently doing sets of 15 as it forces me to keep the weight a bit lower (better for my aging/injured previously joints) and gives a bit more tone and muscle endurance I have found.

No point in a build thread Kez, not trying to build

Sidenote: top work on the gains mate, you should be looking a lot healthier now I wont have to save you from drunken girls at in Shep hey You'll be able to fend them off yourself!

Mate that begginers program is all you should be doing, 3 times a week or every second day, Contuinue to add weight untill your benching 100, squating 140- 200kg and DL 200

Eat at or aboive maintance or even at a deficiet depending on what your goals are, Dont worry about spilt routies or any other crap. This program is fail proof, and is a complete list of all compound movements. Dont worry about isolation movements. No need.

[No Crust Racing]

Quick update to this.

Managed 3 sets at 72.5 on the bench

Upped weight but failed bb curls at 36kg 10-8-6, pretty shitfful

Watched a clip on the other thread And realised I was doing squats too shallow. Had a go tonight ass to heels deep and did my 3 sets but only 46-47kg and found it much harder, that's the sort of leg feeling I was expecting.

SLDL now at 54-55kg hit found that much harder after deeper squats

Cheater dips at 40 reps

BB rows at curl weight

Also run out of protein powder I had so need a post workout supp to put back what I'm using.

Won't bother updating again unless i have something worth noting. Appreciate the help guys. Really feel like bb rows and SLDL are helping back shoulders and the hunch I was getting. See how I go getting a rack.

[No Crust Racing]

OK Got a few updates.

Mixed a few things up.

Now doing sets of 8 as I wanted to go a bit higher in weight on some things. Routine looks like this at present.

3x8 Bench Press @ approx 77kg having intermittent success with this, sometimes get out the 3x8 sometimes fail on the very last rep on the third set so will sit at this weight for a bit. I find success days tend to be Mon and Fri, failure tends to be Wed

Crunches as usual

3x8 Concentration curls at 19.5kg can be done both arms. Had it at 21.5kg but strained my elbow so knocked it back and added some ezy bar curls at the end.

Moved SLDL to this position, now completing 3x8 at bench weight (hooray! bit of milestone for me) Biggest problem with this is now grip strength.

More ab work which is now 1min front plank, 30 sec each side plank, then leg extensions 1min break then repeat.

Cheater dips on the side of the spa, knocked back to 35 reps now as added some tri extensions.

Ezy Bar squat 3x 8 @ just over 50kg, going deep now and realising how weak my legs really are, also the shoulder press part is still hard. Still looking for a rack and thinking I might lash out and get a rack with a bench inside it and move out my old equipment.

3x8 BB rows @ approx 36-38kg

That's the end of the "main" routine then depending on how I'm feeling I'll work in the following

1 extra set of bench

A couple sets of ezy bar curls at under 30kg

A couple sets of tricep extensions

A couple sets of dumbell lunges

And maybe some calf raises

All up spending about an hour and have been using Dymatize Elite Fusion 7 as my post workout supp and on the morning after.

Both I and the missus have noted that my posture is better and shoulders are less rotated so that's a win. I also got a random compliment from a staff member at work which is interesting as I don't seemed to have gained much weight, maybe 1-2kg at the absolute most and a decent portion of that will be the extra water I'm drinking now.

[Birds]

Zercher squats!

LOL two words: "fuck" and "that"

[No Crust Racing]

Thats what I said...

[No Crust Racing]

Going to back off on the SLDL and back work a touch, think I've added too much too soon as I've had a slight recurring pinching sensation just above my right butt check. Tried resting it a bit but hard when normal activity can make it grab.

Will lay off the back work a touch, then drop the weight when I come back and triple check form on a few things. I've watched a TON of videos on proper form for SLDL and Pendlay/BB Rows so I'm reasonably confident I'm doing them right, probably just too much weight too soon for a person with weak back/legs.

If anyone has a video they swear by for either exercise post it up (I've had the missus compare my form to a few clips I've shown her as I have no mirrors).

I did a few numbers and worked out I have plenty of room for more protein in my diet also and based on some comments in the main thread about absorption rates I'm spreading it out over the day more.

Edited March 26, 2012 by ActionDan